Ethumion
There are many lapses in judgement one can level at wielders of magic and psionic power in total safety. Slipshod ethics? Sins against nature? Needlessly destructive side-effects? These and more are present and accounted for. Combined with the human ability to see beauty in anything, interesting results tend to fall out from sorcerous romance. Aasimars and tieflings are common examples; rarer are the ethumions, descendants of humans and ravids. Carrying the overflowing energy of their extraplanar ancestors, now tempered by human stability and creativity, ethumions move through the world dancing to their own beat. Everyone else just needs to keep up. Appearance: 'Ethumions tend to favor their human ancestry in appearance, though it’s almost impossible to find an ethumion that isn’t hale, hearty, and athletic. Some touches do reveal their magical lineage; white or silver eyes that occasionally spark or flash and similarlycolored hair that's bright to the point that it seems to glow are both common traits in ethumions. The most obvious sign of their heritage, however, is the way that objects on their person and in their immediate vicinity tend to move in response to the ethumion’s moods and desires unless they make an active effort to suppress it. Ethumions tend to wear form-fitting or tightly buckled clothing and armor; more than one has ended up in a feedback loop where their annoyance at their clothes constantly moving has only made them move more and caused even more irritation. Those with a flair for the dramatic—and a solid sense of self-control—sometimes go the opposite route, wearing loose or billowing clothes that move on their own to accent the ethumion’s actions and words. '''Demeanor: '''Ethumions overflow with verve; their emotions run hot and close to the surface, and their highs are high and their lows ''low. They tend to be enthusiastic, confident, optimistic, talkative, and eager to help. Their swift healing and native toughness also means that ethumions can come off as suicidally reckless to others, an accusation that is more accurate than it should be in most cases. Ethumions sometimes forget that others aren’t as wild as they are and leave their friends or loved ones in the dust as they go chasing after something that’s caught their interest. Ethumions can seem distracted much of the time as well. Their connection to positive energy means that they experience the world in a vastly different way than other races; colors are richer and layered, sounds twist and linger in their ears, smells tickle the memory in odd ways. Living in a world that seems so much different from the one described to them by their peers can be frustrating for ethumions, who take to art to try and express what they see and hear to others with more conventional senses. This, combined with the obedience of their possessions and environment (to say nothing of the way objects in the ethumion’s vicinity express their inner thoughts and feelings) can give them an alien air that is not immediately obvious when a person first meets them. For some people, it’s too much, and friendships can grow chilly—or fall out entirely. '''Backgrounds: '''Like many others with extraplanar heritage, ethumions are generally a surprise to their parents, who are often not quite prepared for the energetic, enthusiastic, and recklessly suicidal child that has entered their life. Keeping up with an ethumion child requires either saint-like patience or similar levels of energy; as a result, most ethumions tend to grow up a little out of control, a little spoiled, and with a faint but persistent tendency to react poorly to being told to calm down. Being confident, energetic, and generally conventionally attractive means that ethumions tend to make friends easily. ''Keeping ''them can be another matter; matching an ethumion’s boundless energy can be difficult, and they don’t always stop to consider if others need them to slow down. Once an ethumion sounds out their hobby or interest of choice—often, though not always, something magical in nature—they throw themselves into it with verve and prove to be dedicated, if distractible, students. Regardless of their profession, many, perhaps even most, ethumions take up some kind of art in an attempt to express to others the world the ethumion sees and their peers do not. '''Adventurers: '''Ethumions end up adventuring almost by accident at times. They decide to leave home or practice their profession in a new way and end up falling in love with the thrill, danger, and challenge of the adventuring life. Life-or-death combat provides a rush very little else does, and ethumions take to it like a moth to flame, encouraged by their ability to keep going when others would fall from exhaustion or wounds. Others are lead to adventure by their passion for a cause, a religion, or even in an effort to track down their distant ravid ancestor and learn more about their heritage (this rarely ends how either side thinks it will, but such is life). Ethumions often favor magical or psionic classes and make for talented sorcerers and oracles, though their verve and individualism lead to quite a few in other professions. Their energy and enthusiasm often makes ethumions the heart of joy in an adventuring party, and an ethumion can fit very well into a support role. Though they take well to travel, the intimacy of an adventuring party can be grating on an ethumion’s compatriots, who have to learn how to tell their companion to moderate themselves without coming across as condemning the ethumion’s joy. It doesn’t always work out, however, and feelings do get hurt. '''Racial Traits Ethumions possess the following racial traits. * +2 Constitution, +2 Charisma, –2 Wisdom: 'As a result of their heritage, ethumions are energetic and strong-willed, to the point that they often drown out the voices of others. However, they tend to be fairly aimless like their ancestors when it comes to long-term goals, and often don’t take much care about their surroundings. * '''Medium: '''Ethumions are Medium creatures and have no bonuses or penalties due to their size. * '''Outsider (native): '''Ethumions are outsiders with the native subtype. * '''Normal Speed: '''Ethumions have a base speed of 30 feet. * '''Darkvision (Ex): '''Ethumions can see perfectly in the dark up to 60 feet. Unlike other creatures, ethumions can discern colors when using their darkvision. * '''Contagious Enthusiasm (Su): '''An ethumion’s presence causes small objects to stir and shift, their subconscious desires filling their surroundings with a semblance of life. Although this has no mechanical effect on most objects, items worn and held by an ethumion seem to follow their owner’s wishes before they even express them. Ethumions gain Quick Draw as a bonus feat, even if they do not meet the prerequisites. They may use this feat to draw any object they wear or carry, or that is held in a small container on their person (regardless of how it is organized). * '''Minor Telekinesis (Su): '''Unlike their ancestors, ethumions have a semblance of control over their outpouring of energy. As a standard action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity, an ethumion can lift an object as if by ''mage hand, with a caster level equal to her character level. She need not concentrate on this ability after activating it, and can propel the object once per round as a free action. This ability lasts as long as the ethumion wishes, but she can only lift a single object at a time; if she uses this ability again while an object is already affected, that object is dropped. * '''Positivity (Ex): '''Every hour, an ethumion regains hit points and recovers from fatigue as though they rested for 8 hours. In addition, they recover from ability damage and ability burn at twice the normal rate. Finally, ethumions are well-adapted to positive energy-dominant planes, and never gain temporary hit points above their maximum hit points from such a plane’s traits. * '''Uncontainable (Su): '''An ethumion's outflow of positive energy is both a blessing and a curse; although they can manipulate objects with a natural ease and grace, their state of mind tends to reflect itself in their surroundings. Ethumions gain a +2 racial bonus on Escape Artist and Sleight of Hand checks and take a –2 penalty on Bluff checks. * '''Wellspring of Life (Ex): '''Whenever an ethumion uses a spell, power, item, or other magical, psionic, or supernatural effect that heals another creature, she heals them 1 additional hit point per odd-numbered character level she possesses (+1 at 1st level, +2 at 3rd level, and so on). This is considered to be part of the effect itself, and only occurs once per effect, if the healing happens over time. In addition, whenever an ethumion deals positive energy damage (including when using positive energy to harm undead creatures), she gains a racial bonus on the damage roll equal to her Constitution modifier. * '''Languages: '''Ethumions begin play speaking Common. Ethumions with high Intelligence scores can choose any languages they want (except secret languages, such as Druidic). '''Alternate Racial Traits Ethumions have access to the following alternate racial traits. Helping Hand (Su): 'Some ethumions manifest their connection to the positive energy plane more strongly with objects than they do with creatures. Such ethumions gain the ability to manipulate nearby objects much more proficiently than a normal ethumion’s minor telekinesis. They gain a third, invisible “hand” that they can use for anything a normal hand could be used for. This does not give give the ethumion any extra attacks or actions per round, though it can wield weapons and make attacks as part of the ethumion’s attack routines just like a normal hand (the ethumion merely cannot attack with a third weapon). The “hand” can manipulate or hold items just as well as the ethumion’s normal hands (for example, allowing them to use one hand to wield a weapon, another hand to hold a potion, and the third hand to hold a shield). This hand cannot be bound or hindered conventionally, although it is still affected by the disarm combat maneuver as if it were a normal hand, and is still unusuable if the ethumion is stunned, paralyzed, or similarly affected by a condition that removes their actions. This racial trait replaces minor telekinesis and wellspring of life. '''Lifeguard (Su): '''Some ethumions are naturally more in tune with the lives of others than they are with objects. They can perceive the infinitesimal leaks of life from living beings around them, or notice “holes” in the world where no positive energy remains. An ethumion with this racial trait can identify the state of beings she can see within the range of her darkvision, as if by a ''deathwatch ''spell. This racial trait replaces minor telekinesis and reduces the range of the ethumion’s darkvision to 30 feet. '''Mostly Human (Ex): '''A few ethumions have appearances much closer to those of their human ancestors; in fact, they may not even realize their true race. Such ethumions appear to be human, save perhaps minor features like unusual hair, and they count as humanoid (human) as well as outsider (native) for all purposes (such as humanoid-affecting spells such as ''charm person ''or ''enlarge person). This ability alters the ethumion’s type and subtype. '''Racial Favored Class Options Ethumions can select from the following alternate favored class options. * All: '''Gain 1/6 of a bonus heritage feat. Any ethumion character can choose this bonus upon gaining a level in their favored class. * '''Alchemist: '''Add one extract formula from the alchemist's list to the character's formulae book. This formula must be at least one level below the highest formulae level the alchemist can create. * '''Antipaladin: '''Add +1 foot to the size of all the antipaladin's aura class features. This option has no effect unless the antipaladin has selected it 5 times (or another increment of 5); an aura of 14 feet is effectively the same as a 10-foot aura, for example. * '''Barbarian: '''Add 1 to the ethumion’s total number of rage rounds per day. * '''Bard: '''Add 1 to the ethumion’s total number of bardic performance rounds per day. * '''Daevic: '''Gain 1/5 of a point of essence. * '''Fighter: '''Gain a +1/2 bonus on Acrobatics, Climb, Jump, and Swim checks. * '''Kineticist: '''Gain 1/6 of an Extra Wild Talent feat. * '''Occultist: '''Increase the occultist’s total number of points of mental focus by 1/2 point. * '''Paladin: '''Add +1 foot to the size of all the paladin's aura class features. This option has no effect unless the paladin has selected it 5 times (or another increment of 5); an aura of 14 feet is effectively the same as a 10-foot aura, for example. * '''Rajah: Whenever the ethumion and her entitled creatures regain hit points, they regain an additional 1/2 hit point. This can only occur once per effect, if the healing happens to be over time. * '''Rogue: '''Gain 1/6 of a new rogue talent. * '''Sorcerer: '''Add 1/2 of a conjuration (healing) spell known from the cleric spell list. * '''Soulknife: '''Gain 1/6 of a new blade skill. * '''Warder: '''Reduce the armor check penalty of worn armor by +1/5. * '''Warlord: '''Gain a +1/4 circumstance bonus on all d20 rolls made during a warlord’s gambit. * '''Wilder: '''Reduce the chance of psychic enervation when using a wild surge by 1/2%.